Founder of Miss Trans America, Stabbed and Beaten to Death.

It's awful to think someone's only solution to a problem is killing another human being.

Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, the 42-year old founder of the Miss Trans America pageant and a transgender activist, was found Friday in her North Adams, Massachusetts home on Friday where she had been killed, stabbed and beaten. She suffered from blunt force trauma to her head and a stab wound on her torso and her death has been ruled her death a homicide. Police did not have to go far to find the murderer.

Her husband, Mark Steele-Knudslien, turned himself in at the Adams Police Department headquarters on Friday, telling police he had done “something very bad.” Supposedly he and his wife got into an argument and he “snapped.” He stabbed her with a knife and hit her with a hammer.

Is she the first transgender person to be killed in 2018? GLAAD says so, but like hate crimes, not everything is reported efficiently or accurately. The death toll of transgender individuals each year is shocking, but what is more shocking is that there most likely are more.

Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien is the 1st known transgender person to be killed this year.
Violence against transgender people, especially trans women of color, must receive more national media attention.https://t.co/9NtNsvCRRU

Christa Leigh was a well-established and well-known transgender activist. She has been credited with starting the Miss Trans America pageant, helping to launch the Miss Trans New England pageant, and was one of the organizers of the first New England Trans Pride event.